Their Independence is our Nakba

The granddaughter of 97-year-old Abdul Hadi Qudeh holds keys that he says belongs to a house his family were forced to leave after the establishment of Israel in 1948, as she poses for a photograph at her grandfather field ahead of Nakba Day in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip May 14, 2014. (Photo: Mohammed Talatene/ APA Images)

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Today, as Israel celebrates what it calls its Independence Day, indigenous Palestinians who survived the ethnic cleansing of 1947-49 and have been forced to live as second-class citizens of Israel or under its military rule, including in East Jerusalem, will hold marches and vigils to mark what they consider to be the Palestinian “Nakba” or “Catastrophe.”

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), which is the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society, issued the following statement:

Their Independence is our Nakba. The ethnic cleansing of 750,000 to one million indigenous Palestinians 70 years ago and turning them into refugees to establish a Jewish-majority state in Palestine is no cause for celebration.

The Nakba is not a crime of the past, it is ongoing. Seventy years later, Israel continues to demolish Palestinian homes, steal our lands to build illegal settlements exclusively for Jewish-Israelis, push Palestinians out of Jerusalem by revoking our residency rights, and deny Palestinian refugees, like many of our members, our internationally recognized right to return to our homes.

Israel also tries to criminalize our grief and refusal to accept the ongoing Nakba by threatening legal action against Palestinians who commemorate this day as a day of mourning. But we insist on commemorating and resisting this decades-old system of injustice.

We commemorate by asserting our right to return home and to live in freedom and dignity. Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza continue to take part in the Great March of Return, facing the Israeli military’s shoot-to-kill-or-maim policy.

Until Israel stops violating our fundamental human rights, we call on people of conscience and communities around the world to support our efforts to stop Israeli crimes by building and escalating peaceful BDS campaigns.

The most effective form of solidarity with our mass mobilizations includes urging governments and institutions to ban all trade with and divest from companies implicated in Israel’s illegal settlements and other violations of Palestinian human rights. There should also be a comprehensive military embargo against Israel, including a ban on collaborating in or sharing military research with Israel.

About Palestinian BDS National Committee

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society. It leads and supports the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. For more information, visit www.bdsmovement.net/BNC.

14 Responses

“Urban Dictionary defines “woke” as being aware, and “knowing what’s going on in the community.” It also mentions its specific ties to racism and social injustice. To use “woke” accurately in a sentence, one that captures its connotations and nuances, you’d need to reference someone who is thinking for themselves, who sees the ways in which racism, sexism and classism affect how we lives our lives on a daily basis. Or, alternatively, someone who doesn’t. In which case:

Giphy

The rise in popularity of “woke” has been tied to the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which initially surfaced in 2013 following the death of Trayvon Martin. #StayWokeoften accompanied social media posts about police brutality, systematic racism and the industrial prison complex. #StayWoke reminds readers to look past the provided narrative, to examine their own privilege (or lack thereof). #StayWoke reminds readers that there is more than one reality to life in the United States.”

Jews need to get woke about Israel and its cruelty. You can be Jewish or you can be Zionist but you cannot be both.

“Over 20,000 March in Northern Israel to Mark ‘Catastrophe’ of Israeli Independence

The ‘Procession of Return’ commemorates the Nakba and calls to attention the rights of Arabs uprooted from their villages during the 1948 Israeli-Arab war …

… In recent years, the procession has become a large demonstration, with people participating from the entire political spectrum of Israeli Arab society. Jewish Israelis who associate themselves with the liberal-democratic camp also participated. Ultra-Orthodox Jews were seen marching in the procession as well.

Protesters held up Palestinian flags and signs bearing the names of over 530 villages they say were uprooted in 1948. This year, organizers were pleased with the increased number of young people participating in the event, saying that it sends the message that younger generations will not forget the Nakba and the right of return.

A member of the association organizing the procession, Sliman Fahamawi, said in a speech on behalf of the displaced that “For generations they tried to deny the Nakba and the right of return,” but that “the many thousands gathered here say the right of return is a holy right which none can relinquish.”

Attending the rally, the chairman of the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, Mohammad Baracha, said: “On this day they try to distort history, but we are here to say we have not forgotten. The Nakba is a hard, painful memory for every Palestinian, especially those who were uprooted from their homes.”

Baracha also addressed violence within Palestinian society, noting the community must strive for progress and improvement. “I call upon the entire Arab public everywhere – denounce violence and denounce those dealing in violence and arms,” he said.

Eitan Rubinstein, founder of the Israeli NGO Zochrot, also spoke during the procession. “Those who have transgressed ask for forgiveness, after the felony has passed, is done, and in our case is at its peak with no end on the horizon. It takes effort to see beyond the horizon and to imagine, perhaps daydream, to see a different future in which justice reigns over the land.” ”

Help me to understand something.
If a couple of original 1948 refugees from Majdal have twenty grandchildren, and another couple of original refugees from Iraq Suwaydan have four grandchildren, than the family from Majdal has 5x more of a claim to return to Israel than the family from Iraq Suwaydan?

|| Jackdaw: Help me to understand something.
If a couple of original 1948 refugees from Majdal have twenty grandchildren, and another couple of original refugees from Iraq Suwaydan have four grandchildren, than the family from Majdal has 5x more of a claim to return to Israel than the family from Iraq Suwaydan? ||

If RoR extends to grandchildren, yes; if it doesn’t, no.

Either way, those refugees have a legitimate right to return to their actual homelands. Foreign nationals – citizens of homelands all over the world over who have chosen to acquire/hold the religion-based identity of Jewish – do not have such a right.

I know that you can understand this, but I also know that because you’re a Zionist you won’t accept it.

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